It is with great sadness we must report that APM President Mike Gretz has "Gone West" after a short illness.
Mike has been an integral part of the leadership here at Antique Airfield, the AAA and especially the APM for years. Along with his wife Doris and other family members, he is a big reason for the success and growth of the APM and the AAA/APM Invitational Fly-in.

Mike gave selflessly of his time and talents and we will miss him greatly.

A fund will be set up in a few days to help Doris and the family pay for extensive medical/care costs associated with Mike's illness. We will make an appropriate announcement here an on our Facebook page when ready.
Tailwinds and blue skies Mike...

BTB Days

Back-To-Blakesburg and Back-To-Basics

AAA/APM Invitational Fly-In, August 31 - September 5, 2016

The Board of Directors of both the Antique Airplane Association
and the Air Power Museum are pleased to announce the 2016 AAA/APM
Invitational Fly-in will celebrate "BTB
Days" ... Back-to-Blakesburg and Back-to-Basics.

Back in 1971, the first AAA/APM Invitational Fly-in was held at
Antique Airfield near Blakesburg, IA and that event has been around
long enough to have created it’s own history that many of our
younger/newer members may be unaware of.

The AAA/APM Invitational Fly-in, envisioned as a "by-the-members,
for-the-members" convention and reunion, was a revolutionary way to hold
a major aviation event - one that over the last 40+ years has proven
time and again to be popular with our membership. Antique Airfield was
then and still to this day owned in total by members of the Taylor
family and the Air Power Museum (APM). As it receives no federal,
state or local monies, the AAA/APM Invitational Fly-in is a private
event that is truly "by-the-members, for-the-members"!

While the past four decades has seen many changes in Antique Airfield
and in our membership, the direction AAA/APM Founder Robert Taylor
envisioned for the AAA has remained steadfast & constant. That is why
the 2016 AAA/APM Fly-in will be known as "BTB Days" or
Back-To-Blakesburg!

As for Back-to-Basics, we plan to put the emphasis of the event on how
the AAA/APM Fly-in was and has remained to this day; simple, relaxing
and fun with antique/classic aircraft flying from dawn till dusk.

Plus instead of a particular theme and featured aircraft (as we have
done these past fifteen years or so) we will, as we did in the early days of
Antique Airfield Fly-ins, showcase those new restorations coming from
the hangars and shops of our members from around the country.

The Air Power Museum (APM) is pleased to announce it has teamed with eBay for Charity in their "Win Bigger Sweepstakes". All our AAA members can, if they’d like, help the APM attempt to win a $25,000.00 grant from eBay for Charity.

Integrated into eBay's regular buying and selling platform, eBay Giving Works makes it easy for people to support important causes, both in the U.S. and abroad. It enables sellers to donate a portion of their sales and buyers to shop while supporting their favorite charities — all the while giving nonprofits like the APM an opportunity to engage new supporters.

This holiday season, eBay is encouraging our community to Wish Bigger – and #WinBigger! Starting today November 2 to December 27, when you make the APM your favorite charity on eBay, you could win too! eBay is giving away a grand prize of a $2,500 eBay gift card, along with weekly $250 gift card prizes, to randomly drawn supporters who add a favorite charity! Let’s both #WinBigger.

The organization with the most new favorites at the end of the Sweepstakes will win a grant of $25,000 from eBay. Second place will win $15,000 and we will randomly select a participating charity to win a third place grant of $10,000.

It only takes a second; click the link below and add us as your Favorite now!

The 2015 Blakesburg Fly-In is underway. Thursday saw great weather, light breeze right down the runway, and a large number of arrivals. By the end of the day Antique Airfield had seen 222 unique airplane arrivals during Wednesday and Thursday, which is great turnout for Thursday.

The weather is predicted to be great, albeit hot, for the remainder of the weekend. Come out and join us at Antique Airfield!

Once again the AAA Fly-In will feature the Youngest Pilot Award, co-sponsored by the Nebraska, Colorado, Michigan, Texas, and Marginal Aviation Chapters. The youngest pilot who flew to Antique Airfield from their home base as PIC will receive a plaque and a Lifetime membership in the AAA. The lifetime membership alone is a $600 deal!

If the Youngest Pilot has already received the award in a prior year then the award will go to the next youngest. Yes, this has happened before!

This worthy award, and many others as well, are excellent reasons to stick around for the "Gone Home" Awards Ceremony on Sunday evening. We look forward to seeing you there!

Looking at the long range forecast it looks like it is going to be nearly perfect conditions for the upcoming AAA fly-in over Labor Day weekend. Some showers this weekend should get the field nice and green, but it will be dry and in peak condition as the fly-in starts.

With just a week to go until the start of the AAA/APM invitational Fly-in a lot of work is happening around Antique Airfield. The work is not only to get the field ready for the Fly-in but also to continue on the major infrastructure projects via the 2015 APM Capital Improvement Fund.

In relation to those projects much has been accomplished yet much remains to be done. For example, the re-graveling of the roads/driveways here at Antique Airfield continues and while we hope to be completely done by the start of the Fly-in it will be close !! Already some $4K+ has been spent on this project alone.
Several of the high visibility projects have been finished “THANKS” to the hard work of a very dedicated and hard working group of volunteers. Those projects include;

The new hangar doors on the APM Main Museum hangar which are now complete and fully operational.

New roof on the APM Annex.

All new sheet metal on the façade of the APM Main Museum Hangar

The exterior wall of Powell Hall rebuilt and new steel installed.

While these major projects and several other smaller projects have been finished, much remains to do via the 2015 APM Capital Improvement Funds. Included are electrical, insulation and finishing the interior of Powell Hall, installation of systems (electrical, pneumatic, plumbing and heat) in the APM Restoration Center, new windows for the APM Gift Shop and more.

It’s obvious that with the AAA/APM Fly-in just ten days away, most of the above “to do” projects will have to wait until after the Fly-in, though we hope to get the new windows installed in the APM Gift Shop by the Fly-in. However, plans are being formulated as to making further progress this fall/winter.

We look forward to all our Fly-in attendees seeing firsthand what has been accomplished in improving the looks of the APM and moving it forward.

We also want to “Thank” the following for coming and helping out this weekend (my humblest apologies if I missed anyone);

Dan, Dakota & Lu Quinn

Mike Criswell

Ken Marth

Luke Pieper

Mark & Teri Lancaster

Eric & Jane Fritz

Rick Gritters

Jessica Fuller

Holly Vanorny

Harve Applegate

Aaron Klugherz

John Lossner

Travis Gregory

Mike & Doris Gretz

Marcy Taylor

Ben Taylor

Brent Taylor

Luke, Mike & Ken start on the task of installing a new exterior wall on the Powell Hall portion of the APM Annex.

Dakota doing what he loves best...running machinery!

Progress!

Kinda looks like a summer camp project ?? Aaron Klugherz brought down his portable CNC machine and the new signs for the rebuilt Flightline Gate #1 were engraved. Here Harve, Ben, Aaron & John apply some paint to the sign.

Fly-In pre-registration is closing this Sunday evening! If you pre-register you can save time at the fly-in during sign-in, and you get a picture of your airplane here on the website. You can register online with this link: Click here to register.

This Saturday (August 29th) will be the annual "Mowing Party" so let us know if you can attend and plan on bringing your tractors, riders, mowers, weed eaters and other implements of destruction to help have Antique Airfield looking it’s best for the Fly-in. See you then!